At Wholesale Computer Outlet, LLC we do our best in
doing our part to help the environment. A clean earth is a better place
and any effort now will help improve our children’s and grandchildren’s
lives! This program is an in-store solution for customers to bring
their old, unused, or unwanted consumer electronics, no matter where
they were purchased, for responsible recycling!

Recycling Electronics

Recycling recovers more than 100 million pounds of materials from
electronics each year. Recycling electronics helps reduce pollution that
would be generated while manufacturing a new product and the need to
extract valuable and limited virgin resources. It also reduces the
energy used in new product manufacturing. In doing our part we collect
any unused electronics and break them down to be recycled and reused.

Reasons for recycling

Computer components contain many toxic substances, like dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. A typical computer monitor may contain more than 6% lead by weight, much of which is in the lead glass of the cathode ray tube
(CRT). A typical 15 inch (38 cm) computer monitor may contain 1.5
pounds (1 kg) of lead but other monitors have been estimated to have up
to 8 pounds (4 kg) of lead. Circuit boards contain considerable
quantities of lead-tin solders that are more likely to leach into
groundwater or create air pollution
due to incineration. The processing (e.g. incineration and acid
treatments) required to reclaim these precious substances may release,
generate, or synthesize toxic byproducts.

Data security

Data security is an important part of computer recycling. Federal
regulations mandate that there are no information security leaks in the
lifecycle of secure data; this includes its destruction and recycling.
There are many federal laws and regulations, like HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, FACTA, GLB,
which govern the data lifecycle and require that establishments with
high and low-profile data keep their data secure. Recycling computers
can be dangerous when handling sensitive data, specifically to
businesses storing tax records or employee information. According to an IBM
survey, while most people try to wipe their hard drives clean before
disposing of their old computers, only 5% rely on an industry specialist
or a third party to completely clean the system before it's disposed
of. Industry standards recommend a 3X overwriting process for complete
protection against retrieving confidential information. This means a
hard drive must be wiped three times in order to ensure the data cannot
be retrieved and possibly used by others. This is the process we use at
Wholesale Computer Outlet, LLC to insure the security of your
information!

Reasons to destroy and recycle securely

There are ways to ensure that not only hardware is destroyed but also
the private data on the hard drive. Having customer data stolen, lost,
or misplaced contributes to the ever growing number of people who are
affected by identity theft,
which can cause corporations to lose more than just money. The image of
a company that holds secure data, such as banks, law firms,
pharmaceuticals, and credit corporations is also at risk. If a company's
public image is hurt, it could cause consumers to not use their
services and could cost millions in business losses and positive public
relation campaigns. The cost of data breaches "varies widely, ranging
from $90 to $50,000 (under HIPAA's new HITECH amendment, that came about
through the American Recovery and Revitalization act of 2009),as per
customer record, depending on whether the breach is “low-profile” or
“high-profile” and the company is in a non-regulated or highly regulated
area, such as banking or medical institutions.” There is also a major
backlash from the consumer if there is a data breach in a company that
is supposed to be trusted to protect their private information. If an
organization has any consumer info on file, they must by law (Red Flags
Clarification act of 2010) have written information protection policies
and procedures in place, that serve to combat, mitigate, and detect
vulnerable areas that could result in identity theft. The United States
Department of Defense has published a standard to which recyclers and
individuals may meet in order to satisfy HIPAA requirements.

Buying Green

Environmentally responsible electronics use involves not only proper
end-of-life disposition of obsolete equipment, but also purchasing new
equipment that has been designed with environmentally preferable
attributes. Think about this when purchasing new equipment, and ask us
about environmentally preferable electronics. Households, companies, and
governmental organizations can encourage electronics manufacturers to
design greener electronics by purchasing computers and other electronics
with environmentally preferable attributes and by requesting takeback
options at the time of purchase. Look for electronics that:

Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
is a procurement tool to help institutional purchasers in the public
and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers,
notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes. EPEAT
also provides a clear and consistent set of performance criteria for the
design of products, and provides an opportunity for manufacturers to
secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact
of its products.

What EPA Is Doing To Encourage Reuse, Recycling, and Greener Purchasing of Electronics

The Plug-In To eCycling Campaign
is one of many efforts EPA is using to increase the national recycling
rate to 35 percent, among other goals. The campaign aims to get the word
out about opportunities to reuse and recycle your old computers, TVs,
and cell phones, and to build momentum for even more reuse and recycling
programs. EPA is working with electronics manufacturers, retailers, and
government agencies to reduce the environmental impacts of electronic
products during their production, use, and disposal. The Agency will
also establish partnerships and alliances with industry, states and
environmental groups; provide training, tools and technology assistance
for businesses, governments and citizen groups and get the word out
through outreach and assistance to the general population, especially to
youth and minority groups.

Overall, EPA’s goal is to promote greater electronics product
stewardship. Product stewardship means that all who make, distribute,
use, and dispose of products share responsibility for reducing the
environmental impact of those products. EPA intends to work towards this
goal in three ways:

1. Foster a life-cycle approach to product stewardship, including
environmentally conscious design, manufacturing, and toxics reduction
for new electronic products.

2. Increase reuse and recycling of used electronics; and

3. Ensure that management of old electronics is safe and environmentally sound.

EPA is currently working with stakeholders in both the public and
private sectors to meet these goals. The aim is to make it easier and
more cost-effective for consumers, retailers, recyclers, manufacturers,
and governments at all levels to help divert these products into
environmentally sound reuse and recycling outlets, as well as reduce the
environmental footprint of electronic product use.